10 Tips For Writing An Effective Advertorial

The age of sponsored content has brought with it many unique opportunities and challenges. While it is easier than ever to get your product or service in front of readers, they are also inundated with thousands of pieces of content which has left many people numb to the messages being delivered.

At Presto Media, we have composed numerous and highly-effective advertorials for clients and along the way we’ve found many effective tips and tricks for actually engaging with readers.

Here Are 10 tips For Writing An Effective Advertorial

Don’t Bury The Lede.

We live in a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) culture. Digital content consumes our lives and many internet users want to jump from one piece of content to the next. If you want to give buyers the opportunity to engage with your product or service you should give them the opportunity quickly. At Presto Media, we tend to offer a CTA (Call-To-Action) in the second or third paragraph of most advertorials.

Give Readers A Reason To Keep Reading. While a CTA should be offered quickly, users need a reason to click-through to a sales portal. Start with an engaging fact, or interesting angle that immediately engages the reader.

While a CTA should be offered quickly, users need a reason to click-through to a sales portal. Start with an engaging fact, or interesting angle that immediately engages the reader.

I recently wrote an article about the importance of guiding a reader through a listicle and this holds true with advertorials. One of the easiest ways to keep a reader interested and ensuring they understand the main points of your sales pitch is to provide bold subheadings within the advertorial. We call this the megaphone effect because it amplifies the content that matters most while selling your goods or services.

Create Simple CTAs.

Don’t confuse your readers with high-touch requests that require a lot of thought. Some of our simplest CTAs include things such as “click on the map below to see if you’re qualified” and “enter your zip code HERE (with a hyperlink to the CTA).

Avoid Sending Readers To Outside Sources.

While hyperlinking to supporting content is considered a big plus on news sites and blogs, the goal with every advertorial is to allow the piece of content you are creating to stand on its own as a piece of authoritative content about the product or service you are pitching. Feel free to include mentions to trusted sources by name but avoid hyperlinking out to other content. A good percentage of internet users still navigate the web through links and therefore you will lose some of your audience and they may not return if they click on a link.

Natural language engages readers and leads to a higher level of trust among potential customers. Tell a story that is engaging. Readers need to feel as though you are having a conversation with them.

Hit Readers With The Important Facts First.

Explain why a product or service is important by highlighting the problem or need it solves. Journalism is a good starting point for this type of setup. In traditional news reporting, the reporter writes about the most important facts first and then slowly progresses to the least important facts. This ensures that a reader ready to jump off the page has gathered the best talking points or call to action. Right after you have covered the most important facts, offer a CTA which gives the reader the opportunity to jump to another page and hopefully purchase your good or service.

Don’t Shy Away From Multiple Calls To Action.

Some of our clients have trouble converting their advertorials because they write long pieces of content with a single call to action at the end of their piece.

At Presto Media, we focus on multiple calls to action. Place a CTA towards the top of the article, after you have covered the important facts of the piece, and at the very end of the article. This gives readers an opportunity to jump off the advertorial page and into your sales portal at different points of good or service acceptance.

Offer A Comparative Analysis.

If you are selling a good or service that is cheaper than the competition, easier to acquire or offers some other advantage — highlight it. A good call to action might alert readers to “greatly reduced or free solar panel installations based on local, state, and federal tax credits,” for example. Our clients range from flashlight manufacturers to co-work spaces, and they almost always find success by highlighting a need they fill for customers because of their unique value proposition.

A/B Split Test.

Many Presto Media clients choose to have several pieces of content created for a single campaign. In some cases, we can write upwards of 5 articles for a single advertorial product or service. We suggest using heat mapping, page scrolling, and other analytics to determine where content is falling off and where it is leading to sales. Being hyper vigilant about your content performance is 100% crucial to your success.